Can someone check my English please?

Question

This painting of Elizabeth Foster by Angelica Kauffman in 1785, shows an example of the typical fashion in the late 18th century. Elizabeth Foster, also known as(as or by?) ‘Bess’ was a daughter of Frederick Hervey, the fourth Earl of Bistol. She married twice, first time she was married to John Thomas Foster who was an Irish politician and led a privileged life, but the marriage lasted for only five years. Her second marriage was with William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire, after the death of the Duchess, Georgiana Cavendish in 1806.

The portrait of Elizabeth Foster shows her wearing a chemise à la reine or a chemise dress with an intricate detailing sash under a wide brimmed hat with possibly ostrich feathers. Chemise dresses are(were or are?) relatively duller in colour with excessive ruffling on the neckline and around the cuffs, creating "pouter-pigeon" front and a voluminous back. While the sash is usually in contrasting colour with embroidery edging that is tied under the bust. It shows how simplified and much less detailed fashion was back in the 1780s.

Enoon · Accepted Answer

This painting of Elizabeth Foster by Angelica Kauffman in 1785 shows ~~an example of~~ the typical fashion of the late eighteenth century. Elizabeth Foster, also known as ‘Bess’, was the daughter of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bistol. She married twice. The first time, she was married to John Thomas Foster, an Irish politician who led a privileged life, but the marriage lasted for only five years. Her second marriage was to William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, after the death of the duchess, Georgiana Cavendish, in 1806.

The portrait of Elizabeth Foster shows her wearing a chemise a la reine ~~or a chemise dress~~ with an intricately detailed sash under a wide-brimmed hat bearing what are likely ostrich feathers. Chemise dresses are relatively dull in colour, with excessive ruffling on the neckline and around the cuffs, creating a "pouter-pigeon" front and a voluminous back, while the sash, tied under the bust, is usually in a contrasting colour with embroidery edging. This painting shows how simplified and much less detailed fashion was back in the 1780s.

Japanlluvr · Answer

Thank you Enoon for replying.
I have some questions about your corrections:

enoonthe typical fashion of the late eighteenth century.

is '.....in the late 18^th century' still correct expression? if so what is the difference between 'of' the late eighteenth century and 'in' the eighteenth century?

enoon wide-brimmed hat

why is it necessary to put a hyphen in between hose words?

enoonChemise dresses are relatively dull in colour

when talking about an object used or worn in the past, would you describe in present tense or past tense? if it's in past tense does it mean it still exists like in performances?

enoonwhile the sash, tied under the bust, is usually in a contrasting colour

i don't quite understand why is it necessary to put a coma after sash and bust.

Enoon · Answer

japanlluvris '.....in the late 18th century' still correct expression? if so what is the difference between 'of' the late eighteenth century and 'in' the eighteenth century?

I think it sounds better either of two ways: "shows typical fashion in the late ..." or "shows the typical fashion of the late ...". I think that what you mean is the second.

japanlluvrwhy is it necessary to put a hyphen in between hose words?

"Wide-brimmed" is a two-word adjective. When such a word comes before the noun, it takes a hyphen to help the reader, who otherwise sees a wide hat that is brimmed, when what you mean is a hat with a wide brim.

japanlluvrwhen talking about an object used or worn in the past, would you describe in present tense or past tense? if it's in past tense does it mean it still exists like in performances?

That one could go either way. There still are chemises. I do not know whether they still are typically dull in color, but if they are, use the present tense. If all you want to say is how those dresses were, you should probably change the wording to "The chemise dresses of the day were relatively dull in colour ...."

japanlluvri don't quite understand why is it necessary to put a coma after sash and bust.

"Comma", and please observe proper capitalization in this forum.

The way you had it, the edging was tied under the bust. I moved the phrase "tied under the bust" to avoid that false meaning, and it became parenthetical in the process.

Japanlluvr · Answer

Alright I get it now. Thank you for taking the time to check my work and explained my confusions in detail. : )

Can someone check my English please?

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